The Black Panther (1977)/Revenge (1971)

Two films that, perhaps surprisingly, seem to be filed under British Horror rather than British Crime. One based upon truth, the other fictional. Both featuring kidnaps, the kidnap victim being kept underground, and characters lives unravelling as a result of things going wrong.

The Black Panther is a low-budget British film, made shortly after the trial and imprisonment of its real-life protagonist Donald Neilson, which led to accusations of bad taste and sensationalism from the unhypocritical press. A petty thief who gradually escalated criminally to robbing sub-post offices, which tragically end in murder, owing to Neilson’s incompetence and the selfless bravery of those responsible for these places. That ever-present symbol of British crime, the sawn-off shotgun is the culprit here.

In an effort to get that one big payoff, Neilson kidnaps an heiress, imprisons her in a storm drain, and attempts to get a £50,000 ransom. Although her brother is willing to pay, police ineffectuality, press interference and the inevitable consequences of chance thwarting his carefully-laid plans leads to the death of the heiress and, seemingly by chance again, Neilson is captured.

Considering the circumstances in which it was made, the film is quite remarkable. Its proximity to the actual events now lends it a verisimilitude that any amount of later painstaking period detail reconstruction could not provide.

Watch out for the opening and closing shots.

Revenge however, is a bit more bearable because of its roots in fiction, recognisable actors and the almost over-the-top events. Bizarrely a product of Peter Rogers, with music by Eric Rogers, one could be forgiven for perhaps expecting Carry On Vigilante.

A sombre opening as a grief-stricken family attend the funeral of one of its members, a young girl murdered by a suspect now in the hands of the police. Another funeral attendee (Ray Barratt) has also lost his daughter the same way, and bears the bad news that the Old Bill have released the suspect for lack of evidence. Ray has been keeping an eye on this perve (Kenneth Griffith with coke-bottle-bottom glasses, ill-fiitting clothes and a habit of going out of his way on his daily shopping trips to go past a local school where he can offer young girls some sweets – how could the killer not be him?)

The two dads (the other being James Booth) along with a grown up son, decide to kidnap Griffith and batter the truth out of him – and if he confesses, administer their own form of final justice.

As in The Black Panther, things don’t always go their way. After eventually successfully grabbing their man (although a woman saw events from a nearby window) and incarcerating him in the cellar of The Crown (Booth’s pub), they can’t prevent fate from conspiring against them.

The moral compass keeps swinging every which way. Have they accidently beaten Griffith to death? Is he the right man? What if he escapes?

Primarily seen as a sleazy pot-boiler nowadays, the film offers up some surprising twists, and thoughts on taking the law into your own hands, and/or events spiralling out of control.

Bela Lugosi's Dead

Wanted to watch Dark Eyes Of London last night. Of Bela Lugosi’s films made in Britain, this one is far and away the best. The Mystery Of The Mary (sic) Celeste (I’ve only seen the shortened Phantom Ship version in a mega crackle edition) is pretty intriguing, but, Bela aside, a little lacking in horror. Mother Riley Meets The Vampire (My version masquerades as Vampire Over London) is a riot and well worth watching, although it’s a crime comedy. Hordes of familiar (to people of a certain age) Brit actors (such as Dandy Nichols, Hattie Jacques, Richard Wattis and Dora Bryan) and Bela having a good time. Before chucking on “The Human Monster” (as my disc is named – so that’s all three under alternate titles – Blimey!) I dug out a DVD discovered in a charity shop – Bauhaus – Archive, a compilation of two videotapes (which I owned back in the day) – Shadow Of Light and..er..Archive, and thrilled to Goth pioneers the ‘Haus morosely dirging through their first single Bela Lugosi’s Dead. Terrific stuff. Peter Murphy sends shivers down my spine. (As does Bela Lugosi himself. We start with a view of London’s famous Tower Bridge. The title The Human Monster. And a pair of dark eyes flying towards us. The film halts. The British Board Of Film Censorship’s H (For Horror) certificate appears, and we then gey exactly the same credits except with The Dark Eyes Of London replacing The Human Monster. The original Brit titles. Huzzah! Mind you, the H certificate is a lovely piece of film and horror history. Brought in by a concerned BBFC, ironically as the initial horror boom of the 1930s faded, doubly ironically as such fading was allegedly a result of British flapping about these terrible examples of celluloid, it’s a joy to actually see the thing in all its glory. As an adolescent of the late 1970s I always got a charge from the blood-red X certificate preceding an adults only film. The film itself is based upon an Edgar Wallace novel, and mainly concerns insurance fraud through murder. Fortunately we’re treated to the bodies being fished out of the Thames or washed up on mudflats by eerie fog-shrouded wharfs, a hideous stooge called Jake who’s very frightening, Bela as oily, smarmy insurance agent Dr Orloff (cue Jess Franco) who’s outward appearance as a benevolent philanthropist conceals dark motives (and eyes). There’s also ghastly goings on at a home for the blind (remarkably the real National Society for the Blind assisted in the making of this picture) that (again for people of a certain age and genre predilection) foresees (sorry) the final story in the 1972 big-screen adaptation of Tales From The Crypt.. Most of the investigation is carried out in an almost light-hearted manner by a suave CID man, ably assisted by an American import, snd distracted then assisted by the obligatory love interest. Short, sinister, sparkling and great fun. As does Bela Lugosi himself. We start with a view of London’s famous Tower Bridge. The title The Human Monster. And a pair of dark eyes flying towards us. The film halts. The British Board Of Film Censorship’s H (For Horror) certificate appears, and we then gey exactly the same credits except with The Dark Eyes Of London replacing The Human Monster. The original Brit titles. Huzzah! Mind you, the H certificate is a lovely piece of film and horror history. Brought in by a concerned BBFC, ironically as the initial horror boom of the 1930s faded, doubly ironically as such fading was allegedly a result of British flapping about these terrible examples of celluloid, it’s a joy to actually see the thing in all its glory. As an adolescent of the late 1970s I always got a charge from the blood-red X certificate preceding an adults only film. The film itself is based upon an Edgar Wallace novel, and mainly concerns insurance fraud through murder. Fortunately we’re treated to the bodies being fished out of the Thames or washed up on mudflats by eerie fog-shrouded wharfs, a hideous stooge called Jake who’s very frightening, Bela as oily, smarmy insurance agent Dr Orloff (cue Jess Franco) who’s outward appearance as a benevolent philanthropist conceals dark motives (and eyes). There’s also ghastly goings on at a home for the blind (remarkably the real National Society for the Blind assisted in the making of this picture) that (again for people of a certain age and genre predilection) foresees (sorry) the final story in the 1972 big-screen adaptation of Tales From The Crypt.. Most of the investigation is carried out in an almost light-hearted manner by a suave CID man, ably assisted by an American import, snd distracted then assisted by the obligatory love interest. Short, sinister, sparkling and great fun.

Understanding “Punk” through compilation discs. #1 – Punk!

‘Punk’ is a rather nebulous entity and subject to many varied theories. I bought many ‘punk’ records and saw some of the bands (well after the event if you believe those who were there in 1977 and before) so, what’s it all about? I’ve obtained quite a few ‘punk’ compilations and have decided to try and see if I can put something together.
First out of the gate is the latest CD I’ve turned up. Saddled with the title Punk! It seems as good a place as any to start. Although the recordings here seem to date from 1977 -1980, there’s a Mohican on the front cover. I’m sure they didn’t really start to sprout until The Exploited became massive, but have now become a convenient shorthand for ‘punk’. Oh well, here goes…
Punk! Cd – 2000
1, Generation X - Ready Steady Go
What a great start! Pulse pounding opening, an adrenalin rush of a song. Generation X featured Billy Idol, a member of the Bromley Contingent and Tony James, a member of the London SS. They played the Roxy and became pop stars .Their early songs featured stories about life as a punk, albeit hilariously glamourised.The lyrics of this particular song are perhaps a sell-out as they hark back to the 1960s, specifically a pop programme fronted by mod bird Kathy McGowan. This tune was featured in the British tosh film Party Party (along with The Rezillos Flying Saucer Attack and The Clash’s cover of Brand New Cadillac). Who could forget those brilliant opening chords being played over the vision of a young lady in a leopard-skin mini-skirt bending over to rummage in a fridge whilst Daniel Peacock looked on? Probably everyone. Name checking The Beatles, The Stones and ‘Bobby’ Dylan doesn’t help but Ready Steady Who can lead us to…
2, The Jam - In the City
Good follow up. The Jam may not have looked like stereotypical punks (like, say, early Generation X) but their first album was 30 minutes of anger, aggression and bile – but with a positive message. In The City is their calling card and has some great statements, even if ‘at least we can say we tried’ sounds unfortunately a bit Ed Miliband at present.
3, The Undertones - Jimmy Jimmy
 I can’t hack The Undertones. I did listen to this but they make my toes curl. I don’t know if it’s Fergal Sharkey’s voice but …no…..
4, Buzzcocks – Promises
 A love song, delivered with the ‘Cocks usual panache.
5, The Stranglers - 5 Minutes
 Huzzah! One of my faves from back in the day. The Stranglers got a lot of stick back in the day re pub rock, age, keyboards etc, and were perhaps fortunate that they put out songs with titles like Something Better Change and No More Heroes at exactly the right time to catch the zeitgeist. 5 Minutes is a blast. According to The Stranglers – Song By Song Huge points out that this was about the proximity of well-to-do areas with dangerous places (presumably in London). The line ‘they killed his cat and they raped his wife’ always suggests Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs.
6, Sham 69 - Hurry Up Harry
 Oh dear. Sham’s early stuff was terrific voice of the people punk protest, but here the rot’s setting in. The chorus “We’re going dahn the pub” seems designed to appeal to the sort of people who used to beat up punks. I know Pursey had a downer on punk fashions (I loved those Seditionaries t-shirts) but this is a far cry from What Have We Got?, Red London, Ulster, I Don’t Wanna and the like.
7, Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
The Clash may have sung I’m So Bored With The USA and then embraced it, but here’s a group of Americans who mean business. It shows what a sheltered life I’d led when I recall being a little shocked by their name, listening to John Peel play California Uber Alles. After Sham’s good time pub singalong (complete with joanna in the middle), here’s a vicious, discordant howl of protest at smug, middle class America. We’re back on track.
 8, Eddie And The Hot Rods - Teenage Depression
 More pub rock jeers, but this is fast rock’n’ roll with marvellous teenage rebellion lyrics. Ironically first heard this when a friend of my brother turned up one Christmas with an armful of his older sibling’s records – Slade, T-Rex, Mott The Hoople – this one stood out.
9, 999 – Homicide
999 never quite fit the punk mould (which some might say is a good thing). Nick Cash had previous form with Kilburn & The High Roads. They always sounded clean and overproduced, but I liked that. Seems weird to recall seeing them on Cheggers Plays Pop.
10, The Boomtown Rats - She's So Modern
 More oh dear. Like The Police, the Rats first couple of singles were fast ‘n’ furious rock’n’roll which fit in well with what was going on. Good name too, even if it was from Woody Guthrie’s autobiography. Not sure they’d have got as far as they did had they remained the Nightlife Thugs. And this sounds like a demo version, it’s certainly not the single.
11, The Damned - Neat Neat Neat
Classic. I always preferred this to New Rose. It’s odd. Apart from the speed, it doesn’t sound trad arr punk, but that’s good. Some almost psychedelic flourishes.
12, The Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes
Can’t go wrong here , neither. 1977 revisited via contemporary news reports. Utterly bizarre.Small time crim commits murder and gets sentenced to the death penalty. He calls America’s bluff by demanding they carry it out, and he gets the choice of his execution method – a firing squad – and donates his eyes to medical science. TV Smith’s lyrics are incredible and witty. And it’s all true! Read Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song (or watch the TV movie with Tommy Lee Jones as Gilmore.)
13, The Nosebleeds - Ain't Bin to No Music School
Absolutely brilliant – and uncliched. Classical music intro. Mention of the dole. Completely outside what you’d expect. Viva Manchester, Vini Reilly and Eddie Garritty.
14, Stiff Little Fingers - At the Edge
 I like SLF but this is a bit embarrassing. Good music but the words don’t speak to me anymore – hopefully they will speak to youngsters somewhere.
15, Anti-Nowhere League - Streets of London
 We sang the boring Ralph McTell folkie version at school, so when the ANWL cranked it up, I roared with laughter.
 16, Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK (Alternate Version)
“Words Of Wisdom – Biblical Quotation”. The official recordings do become overfamiliar so it’s good to hear the alternate versions. Still brimming with power and rebellion.
17, The Lurkers - Ain't got a Clue
 Another absolute corker. I only saw the Mark Fincham fronted version of The Lurkers (although Pete Stride did give me a light at the 100 Club once). The original single came with a free gold flexidisc (Chaos Bros?) and this ramalama good time knees up is rendered priceless by Howard Wall talking to himself in the middle. “You’re not having a good time? What’s the matter with you?” “I dunno. I dunno. I just dunno any more.”
 18, Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy
 I ended up seeing Bow Wow Wow when they reformed recently. They were much better live. My brother had a version of this song by The Count Bishops which was infinitely superior.
19, Spizz Energi - Where's Captain Kirk?
 Although not social protest, Spizz’s oddball world was a good one to inhabit. He was always approachable too, and eccentrically funny. Hard not to like this, although I’m sure the original single had a speed-up Smurf style playout including “Frankly Scotty I find this whole thing (bleep) irrational.”
20, Toy Dolls - Nellie the Elephant No way. I like the Toy Dolls but not this.
 So, to sum up. Punk? The Sex Pistols definitely. Unutterably. Irrevocably. The Dead Kennedys – yes, especially if you’re American. Of the rest, I’d give it to The Jam and Stranglers for attitude, The Nosebleeds for content, and the Adverts and Lurkers for nostalgia. Of course they’re all punks in their own way. But I'd have taken out The Undertones and The Toy Dolls.

Chariddy Shop Cinema #6 - A Bigger Splash

Chariddy Shop Cinema #6 : A Bigger Splash Not strictly speaking a charridy shop purchase, as I obtained this (the Salvation version) from Farnborough library, but it was only a pound, and I’d been provided with that money so technically it cost me nowt. I’d seen Hazan and Mingaye’s Rude Boy a number of times in my youth, and was aware of this. I’d never been fussed about David Hockney’s paintings, they always struck me as being of what Galton and Simpson would no doubt refer to as the Infantile school. IMDB moans about excessive homosexuality and abject boredom involving (horror!) fast-forwarding had me girding my loins, so to speak. A literal art film, a fascinating glimpse into Hockney’s world and working practices (nice work if you can get it – I don’t know how all these 60s-70s bohos funded their lifestyles but Dave’s biggest worry seemed to be whether he should stay in London or go to Paris/New York/California to work). The best form of escapism – a completely different world to the one you’re in. Crits jeering DH’s associates for being dull? These were non-actors and presumably unused to being in front of the camera. Hazan artfully (sorry) restages some Hockney canvasses (such as Beverley Hills Housewife), there’s mucho weirdness, many swimming pools and a lot of male nudity, but I came away with a different outlook on what it takes to be that kind of artist. I can’t get the scene where Dave just seems to march into Patrick Procter’s flat, and examine his own portrait of PP up close via Zippolight. Hazan tracks back to reveal PP in the same pose as the portrait, out of my mind. It’s just odd.

Chariddy Shop Cinema #5 : The Enforcer (1976)

Chariddy Shop Cinema #5 : The Enforcer (1976) The only one of the five Dirty Harry movies that I failed to see at the cinema, hence the one that kind of leaves me a tad non-plussed. The original took the crowd pleasing, Nixon’s silent majority pandering view that, with all these lawyers, pen-pushers and do-gooders favouring the perpetrators of crime rather than victims, we needed an anti-hero who could descend to the crims level whilst just barely remaining behind the line of acceptability. He might be as vicious, violent and contemptuous of the rules as his opposite numbers, but he could get the job done with justice prevailing (albeit at a price.) That didn’t stop some critics crying ‘Fascist’! and with Dirty Harry being a box-office success, it was time to forget the ambivalent ending of that first feature and have Harry superseded by a new generation of cops (played by soon to be famous young actors) who also decided to forget the rules (such as they are) and take things a step further by executing criminals without trial in Magnum Force. Harry’s unimpressed. “Pretty soon you’ll be executing your neighbour because his dog pisses on your lawn.” That put things into perspective. So where to go with the third film? Women! Women’s lib! The ‘Frisco mayor is vote-catching via introducing the politically-correct method of quotas. Neanderthal Harry’s ended up on the Personnel Review Board as a result of destroying a restaurant, the villains within and sending innocent bystanders to hospital or the psychiatrist’s couch at great cost to the city. Even perky Tyne Daly fails to raise his enthusiasm. Once a group of nutty psychopaths, masquerading as the People’s Revolutionary Strike Force but actually only really interested in blackmailing San Francisco for millions of dollars, manage to steal a host of weapons and murder Harry’s partner DiGeorgio, he’s whisked back to homicide but has a new sidekick in newly-promoted Ms Daly. The counter-culture lefty loons have kidnapped Mr Mayor and bunked off to Alcatraz for a showdown with Callahan, our lone hope against this kind of ersatz terrorism. Although the film feels a bit second hand (and it takes you a while to dial in to that 1970s sensibility) once you’re there it’s a passable 98 minutes. Clint ambles through it all, but manages to show a softer side in his scenes with Tyne, who also manages to keep her character afloat, not quite the bumbling idiot she might be taken for. There’s a couple of odd swipes at religion, Harry gets on well with the blacks, even if his boss sees them as troublemakers. It’s a stacked deck, but worth a hand or two.

Chariddy Shop Cinema #4 - Rising Damp "The Movie"

Chariddy Shop Cinema #4 - Rising Damp “The Movie” Good Lord. I did actually see this one at t’cinema. Roundly dissed by so-called fans as a lazy re-cycling of TV scripts, sans the late Richard Beckinsale, leaving a no-win Christopher Strauli to be called in off the subs bench via writer Eric Chappell’s other sit-com Only When I Laugh, dodgily unpolitically correct and limping in at the fag-end of the initial British Sit-com big screen fad, Rising Damp wouldn’t seem to have a great deal going for it. Don’t you believe it. Like the Carry Ons, James Bond and Hammer Horror, like every other Sit-Com film (which with the likes of The Inbetweeners and Mrs Brown is still ongoing despite occasional lulls) this is a quintessential look into the lives of the British. Class obsessed, sex obsessed, race obsessed, constantly bemoaning their lot, given to jumping to conclusions, it’s all here. Leonard Rossiter (who I was fortunate enough to see on stage as Inspector Truscott in a production of Joe Orton’s Loot) and Frances De La Tour carry the thing with ease, and (especially if you’re not over familiar with the set bound TV series) the opening out of the claustrophobic seediness is like a breath of (almost) fresh air. There are laughs. The great tragedy is the direction of Joe McGrath, who excelled at lunatic surrealism, and only gets a couple of very brief dream sequences, one with Rossiter Noel Cowarding with Miss Jones in a 1920s ballroom, and another a flash of Grease. Nostalgia supreme, if you’re in the right mood.

Charridy Shop Cinema #3 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Chariddy Shop Cinema #3: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) Saddled with the epithet “The Movie”, this live-action evocation of a comic book phenomenon is actually quite a hoot. I’m glad I waited until now to see it, because, back in the day, apparently it suffered from Head Brit Censor James Ferman’s nanchuk-phobia and had a lot of cuts. Allegedly he even removed a few frames from the 1980s big-screen version of Dragnet because there was a poster for Enter The Dragon displaying the offending martial arts weapons visible in the background of a scene. Mr Strict! So I got to see the ETD homage, and poor old Splinter being tortured. The whole thing is quite violent for a kids film, I thought, and then remembered the bits of Home Alone I’d seen, or even rolling around, helpless with laughter at Laurel and Hardy suffering all manner of undignified injuries when I was a pre-teen. This farrago includes all kinds of weirdness - nods to film noir, Humphrey Bogart, kung-fu cinema (I was a bit stunned to see Golden Harvest films logo come up at the start), there’s loads. The New York being a hotbed of crime at the start suggests not only Batman but also Death Wish, there’s a jeer at Critters, but what’s with the negative image of punks? Huh! Utterly ridiculous but a whole lot of fun. Anything that celebrates junk culture is fine by me.